


Ideas About Ideas

by deathishauntedbyhumans



Category: Milo Murphy's Law
Genre: Character Study, Episode: s02e15 Look at This Ship, Gen, M/M, Narrative foils, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, copious overuse of the word "corndog"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 16:13:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18759892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathishauntedbyhumans/pseuds/deathishauntedbyhumans
Summary: "Even if we find Cavendish, you shouldn’t let him tell you what to do all the time. You’re a guy with ideas, y’know? You should be allowed to act on those ideas. Screw anyone who tells you no.”“What if my ideas are stupid?” Dakota challenges.Heinz stares at him like he’s grown a second head. “Your ideas aren’t stupid."





	Ideas About Ideas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Priestlyislove](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Priestlyislove/gifts).



> Priestlyislove said "I’m gripping to the fact that Dakota thinks he and Doof would be bad partners because he thinks partners should treat each other like how Cav and him treated each other-namely making decisions for the other because they think they know better. Cavendish treated Dakota like a child (as Dakota did back but that’s another issue) to the point where Dakota still feels like he needs someone to tell him what to do so it is so good that he is with Doof at the moment, who just discovered that his partner-and it is adorable that Doof referred to Perry as that-had been babysitting him" and I was inspired.

“A partner is supposed to fly through a window and kick you in the face,” Dakota says, neutrally, while they’re both munching on corn dogs they really don’t need. Heinz glances up from his own corn dog.

“What?”

“What you said earlier, about what partners are supposed to do,” Dakota clarifies. Heinz has mustard on his upper lip. It’s distracting… and not just because it reminds Dakota of a mustache on someone _else’s_ upper lip. “You said they’re supposed to fly through the window and kick you in the face. Is that _really_ what Perry the Platypus used to do to you?”

“Oh.” Heinz goes back to munching on his ‘dog. “Well, yes, but that was back when we were nemeses, technically.” He makes a face. The mustard scrunches up with his nose. “ _Now_ he just babysits me.”

Dakota is well-aware that whatever relationship the strange, anthropomorphic platypus had with Dr. D is something that they should probably steer away from, subject-wise. After all, it’s similar to his own situation with Cavendish, which means it’s… touchy.

Or it should be. Which is why Dakota is surprised when Heinz un-scrunches his face, licks the mustard from his lip, and juts his chin out curiously. “Why do you ask?”

Dakota looks away immediately, because Heinz has an air about him that makes Dakota more honest than he means to be. He isn’t sure if it’s because Heinz turns into Doctor Time in the future, or if it’s just some weird charm he has despite that, but either way… Dakota isn’t used to feeling like he _has_ to be honest. Especially not with the person he calls his partner.

“O-Oh, I was just curious,” he lies. He doesn’t even have to look up to know that Heinz is frowning.

“Geez, for a guy with a rule-follower who plays by his own rules for a partner, you sure are bad at lying,” Heinz complains. Dakota wants to be mad, or upset, but… He’s too darn tired for that. And too full. They _really_ should have just gone back to the apartment or the Murphy house after their fight. “It’s not like he would kick me _hard,”_ he adds, and Dakota is so surprised by _that_ that he forgets not to look up.

Heinz is frowning at his corn dog. “I mean, he _would,_ but he was supposed to. He was the good guy, and I was the evil guy. That’s just how it goes, man.” The things Heinz says are so _brutally honest,_ even when he’s just rambling, and it breaks Dakota’s heart just as much as it reminds him why he’d been avoiding looking at Heinz in the first place. “But it was mutual, too, which was great. Perry the Platypus would come in swinging, and I’d throw him into a pile of sausages, and he’d try to fight me with a bratwurst while I went at him with a loaf of bread.” For just a moment, Heinz smiles softly, fondly. It’s a private kind of smile, Dakota things, but he can’t bring himself to tear his gaze away. “And then.” The smile falls away, and the frown comes back. “And then he had to go and _betray_ me to _Francis.”_

This part, Dakota’s heard. He nods sympathetically, the way he feels like he’s supposed to.

“You said a partner’s supposed to tell you what to do,” Heinz says quietly.

Dakota nearly drops his corn dog. “Actually, I said--”

Heinz waves his own ‘dog haphazardly. A droplet of ketchup splats on the table between them. “You said something like it,” he amends, and Dakota stays silent because yeah, alright, he’ll give the doc that one. “I know we’re back to being friends and all, and I’m not trying to start another fight with you, man, but I think you gotta stand up for yourself. Even if we find Cavendish--” Dakota silently substitutes that _if_ for _when._ “--you shouldn’t let him tell you what to do all the time. You’re a guy with ideas, y’know? You should be allowed to _act_ on those ideas. Screw anyone who tells you no.”

“What if my ideas are stupid?” Dakota challenges, despite the roiling anxiety in his stomach at the way the conversation has turned.

Heinz stares at him like he’s grown a second head. (Dakota pats himself on the shoulder just to make sure that isn’t the case, this time. Heinz’s inators have been random-firing at the worst times.) “Your ideas _aren’t_ stupid,” he says plainly, like he’s speaking to some kind of dumb… well, not animal, because Perry the Platypus is an animal. Like he’s speaking to a dumb baby or rock or something. “ _Ideas_ aren’t stupid. If you have an idea, it’s a stroke of genius! A tiny lightning strike of genius that means you have a brain and _thoughts.”_

It sounds so damn simple, when Heinz says it like that. (Of course it does. Heinz either over-complicates things or oversimplifies them. There’s never any in-between.) Dakota can’t help but believe him, because Heinz sounds like he believes himself.

“Even when Perry the Platypus would kick me in the face because of my ideas, it didn’t mean I ever stopped!” he continues, obviously working himself up. “Well. I guess that’s not _all_ true. I did stop being _evil_ , eventually, but that was less because of Perry the Platypus and more because of extenuating circumstances with my daughter.” He shakes his head. “My point is, you can’t let someone else’s ideas be worth more than yours. Not even Cavendish’s.”

It actually gives Dakota a headache to try and swallow that down, so swallows his last bite of corn dog instead and tries to process.

“You’re telling me,” Dakota says slowly, eventually. “--that I should just. do. _whatever_ comes into my head, and let that happen?”

Heinz grins, looking satisfied. He licks mustard indelicately from one of his fingers and sits back in his chair, patting his stomach in satisfaction with his free hand. “Now you’ve got it!”

“That sounds nuts,” Dakota states flatly. Heinz shrugs.

“I dunno, man. It’s been working pretty well for me.”

**Author's Note:**

> "Heinz stares down at his corn dog" is the worst out-of-context sentence I've ever written. 
> 
> Kudos/comments are love. Come scream at me on tumblr @deathishauntedbyhumans


End file.
